West End traders say are not worried by competition from the new Westfield shopping centre after it made little impact on sales in central London over the weekend.

Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company which represents all shops in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, said that trading the weekend before Christmas had increased since last year by 16 per cent on Saturday and 26 per cent on Sunday.

"Christmas has come early," he added. "We have done exceptionally well - way beyond our expectations. We've never seen Westfield as a threat."

He added that he impact Westfield could have had on the West End never came to fruition.

"The likes of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith should be more concerned as a local shopping centre. But we are not getting complacement and will continue to up our game next year, " he said.

Westfield was unable to release any weekend figures for the new shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush but denied that it had had a quiet weekend.

"Footfall has been consistently strong. We've seen a steady increase in the last couple of weeks," said a spokeswoman.

But some traders told a different story.

"It's not been as busy as we expected," said manager of stationery shop Scribbler, Danya Omar. "I think we've had the Christmas rush. People just don't want to spend their money."

Manager of skin care retailer Neal's Yard, Maryam Shishehgaran, said: "To be honest, this week wasn't as busy as we thought it would be." She put the slump down to a lack of cold weather to drive shoppers indoors

Manager of stationer's Paperchase, Lisa Vanduin, agreed, saying: "I thought it was very quiet for us. I think people had had enough."

But giftshop Aspinal of London manager Laura Bona reported a good weekend in Westfield.